


Waffles at Tesco

by resurrectedhippo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Comfort/Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 13:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14672310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resurrectedhippo/pseuds/resurrectedhippo
Summary: Draco always came back until one day he didn't.





	Waffles at Tesco

Kaur walked into the Auror's department chin high, red-rimmed eyes, she sat in her usual desk beside Harry and announced that she and her husband of 22 years were divorcing. Harry wanted to inquire why but he knew from experience, specifically Hermione's rebuttals and reprimands, that it was impolite.

But he did not know how to comfort her. Harry and Kalla Kaur worked on a few cases with each other throughout the past year and share the bond that comes with bruises and near-deaths. But venturing into the territory of love and marriage, Harry was at a lost on how he could possibly ease the insurmountable pain she was in. 

Harry settled an arm on her shoulder as she turned and shrugged. "He just woke up and stopped loving me." 

When Draco first walked out of Harry's flat, he returned with breakfast, a chaste kiss on the lips, and a promise a lifetime of more. He walked out of Harry's flat several times alone - to tend the garden, to leave treats for stray neighborhood (non-magical) cat, to grab some milk in the local grocer's three blocks down. But he always came back until one day he didn't. 

Harry wished to find Kaur, but she was retired now, living in Devon with her youngest daughter. It has been years after all. He wished to find her, sit down next to her, and grieve. He yearned to ask her if it happened in inches and increments. If her lover of 22 years stopped loving her by day, the magical string that kept them bonded unraveled as time progressed. Or Harry would have asked if it was circumstantial - if Kaur's husband's professorship and her position as a well-recognized Auror created knots they weren't able to unravel no matter how much they tried. 

Harry wanted to know if living without the light of your life, the love that inspires you to a better person, gets easier. 

(It doesn't, but you learn to live anyhow. But the quality of 'living anyhow' is questionable). 

He had the urge to find Narcissa and ask her how it's possible to love a bastard even though Harry already knew the answer. 

Harry found her and spoke to her, not seeing her face. She doesn't answer back. Graves are just commemorative spaces for the dead. He forced himself to look only at her grave will he sat on the grass, the late afternoon sun filtering through the oak trees. 

He wanted to sit beside Kaur and hold onto her while he bullied himself to stop crying. Because like Kaur, it happened 22 years later. 

But Draco didn't ask for a divorce. 

Draco didn't stop loving Harry. 

It did happen in increments. Slowly. Harry falling in love with Draco and the light of his life loving him in return. 

One could say it happened when they saw each other across the Ministry cafeteria six years after the war. Harry was unshaved, dead tired, and he had a double shift to look forward to. Draco, immaculate as ever (even more so, Harry thought that day), groomed and prim, robes billowing as he worked the room towards Harry, "Potter." 

One could say it happened four months after that when Harry found Draco at Tesco's froze food section, starring at the ridiculous amount of choices for waffles. "Do you reckon chocolate chip is superior to old-fashioned ones? Merlin, chocolate is always superior."

Or maybe it happened when Harry responded, "I make better waffles than these pre-packaged ones."

Or when Draco tutted with a tiny smile, "Care to prove me wrong?" 

One could say it happened in Hogwarts, sixth year, fifth year, even fourth.

It happened in increments. Slowly, like their whole lives inched towards this. As if the universe and its audience waited decades to say finally. 

But no matter, it happened anyways. 

When Draco and Harry first kissed, all he could think about is how a war lead to this and would kissing Draco Malfoy be possible without the war? Could they have come to this soft peak without tarnishing and scarring their bodies, throwing hexes at each other, without hateful, venomous words exchanged? 

Perhaps.

He begged Hermione to Oblivate him - forget all the Savior, Boy-Who-Lived-Twice, forget the feeling on Draco in his arms and the tug on his chest at seeing his mug at their flat, forget seeing Draco's favorite muggle items every time he walks to Tesco. He just wants to forget, forget, oblivate. 

There should have been more years. More arguments, more bickering, more nights exploring muggle London. There should have been more years because they planned to go to Japan for the promise of Sakura tea and Alaska for the long nights. 

Fuck the universe for taking their plans, hopes, and promises and dementing it to something so unrecognizable for Harry: a life without Draco. 

Predictably, Hermione refused. She shook her head, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

Draco doesn't ask for a divorce. The dead don't talk. 

Harry tried to smile a little. His dragon wasn't a ghost. He lived happily, died happily, ask Harry to remember their happy ending.

Harry tried to smile and remembered. It's hard to forget.


End file.
